A member of the far-right militia group The Texas Three Percenters, Reffitt was the first defendant to stand trial on charges stemming from the attack. He was found guilty in March of five criminal charges, including obstructing congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The 7.25-year sentence was far less than the 15 years sought by prosecutors, who argued that the punishment should be more severe since Refit’s actions amounted to terrorism. At a sentencing hearing Monday in federal court in Washington, Judge Dabney Friedrich dissented, citing other Jan. 6 cases in which prosecutors did not seek such an enhancement.
However, the sentence is the longest handed down for a January 6 defendant to date. Two other defendants were sentenced to 63 months earlier this year for their roles in the attack. Reffitt’s defense team had urged the judge to sentence him to no more than two years behind bars.
Reffitt will also be on probation for three years after his release and must pay a $2,000 fine.
Addressing the court during Monday’s hearing, Reffitt admitted he acted like an “idiot” on Jan. 6 and said he regretted his actions, apologizing to Congress and the officers he met that day.
“I was more or less mad,” he told a disbelieving Friedrich. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
The judge said it was hard not to see the apology as anything but “half-hearted”, particularly given some of the conspiratorial statements he has made about the events of January 6 since his arrest.
“What he and others who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 did is the antithesis of patriotism,” the judge said before handing down the sentence.
Guy Refitt during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Ministry of Justice
Seeking the longest sentence, prosecutors told the court that Reffitt played a central role as part of the mob on Jan. 6 and intended “to use his gun and the officer’s rubber handcuffs to forcibly drag the lawmakers out of the building and take over Congress.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told Judge Dabney Friedrich that Refitt “acted out” as the leader of the mob, shaking off the rest of the rioters as he confronted police on the west front of the Capitol.
“He didn’t just want President Trump to stay in office,” Nestler said. “He wanted to physically and literally remove Congress.”
The prosecutor claimed January 6 was “the beginning” for Refitt. “He wanted the rest of his militia group to start taking over state capitols across the country,” Nestler said.
Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff, who confronted Reffitt outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, pleaded with the judge to sentence Reffitt to the maximum possible sentence under the law.
“His actions were not acts of patriotism. They were acts of domestic terrorism,” Kerkhoff said.
Prosecutors said Refit also threatened his children when they wanted to report him to authorities.
At his trial, Reffitt’s 19-year-old son Jackson – who turned his father in to law enforcement – told the court he learned of his father’s involvement in the mob when he saw his mother and sister watching news reports about the events which day Jackson described the threat his father had made against him and his sister, Peyton, when they tried to turn him in: “If you turn me in you’re a traitor and traitors are shot.”
In court Monday, prosecutors read a letter from Jackson to the judge in which he described the “painful, slow story” of his father’s descent into conspiracy theories. He said his father needed mental health care, which Friedrich said she would require as part of the sentence.
During the trial, Reffitt’s attorney at the time called no witnesses and Reffitt did not testify in his own defense.
F. Clinton Broden, Refitt’s new attorney, disagreed with prosecutors’ characterization of his client. He argued in written memos and in court that Refitt never entered the Capitol, never took the gun out of his holster and “never gave any indication that he would actually harm his children.”
Peyton, the defendant’s daughter, spoke emotionally in court Monday in support of her father and explained that his mental health was a real issue.
Wiping away tears, Peyton said: “My father’s name was not on the flags that were there that day, that everybody was carrying. It was someone else’s name,” referring to former President Donald Trump, who was addressing crowds of supporters nearby at the White House before marching on the Capitol.
Friedrich, the judge, seemed more concerned about Refitt’s mental health and prospects once he is finally released, asking at one point, “What is this man going to do after he is released?”
“It’s really disturbing that he repeatedly insists on these views that are so far outside the mainstream,” he added, “his claims [about attempts to overthrow the government] it’s wrong.”
Friedrich also took issue with Refitt’s violent threats against lawmakers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“To this day, he has not recanted those comments,” he said.
After Reffitt was convicted by a 12-person jury, five more defendants were found guilty by juries. Another five have been convicted by judges in trials. One defendant, Matthew Martin, was acquitted of multiple misdemeanor charges by a judge.
Outside court Monday, before the sentence was handed down, Reffitt’s wife, Nicole, told CBS News she believed prosecutors’ representation of her husband was a “misrepresentation.”
“He’s a good man,” she said.
Cristina Corujo contributed to this report.
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